Fierce HealthcareAccording to a new survey, doctors have many reasons to feel frustrated and stressed out, but all in all they remain happy with their careers. The Great American Physician Survey solicited opinions on a wide range of topics from 1,314 physicians to get a picture of their view of the state of the healthcare industry.READ MORE

Fierce HealthcareFor doctors frustrated by the demands of group medical practices, going off on their own to start a “micropractice” could be the ticket to better job satisfaction. Despite worries over the impact of the shift in industry payment trends on small and solo practices, the demise of the independent physician has been overstated, Fierce Practice Management previously reported.READ MORE

Fierce HealthcareWith the passing of MACRA by Congress earlier this year, health facilities participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) began to feel the pressure of the law’s new requirements, making it hard to plan around the ever-evolving law and its impact on their ACOs.READ MORE

MedPage TodayUse of proton therapy to treat cancer continued a modest but steady increase, although the biggest driver of the therapy – prostate cancer – remained stagnant, according to data from a national trade group. From 2012 through 2015, the annual photon therapy case volume increased from 5,377 to 7,711 at the centers in operation during that period. Prostate cancer remained the largest single contributing condition to case volume throughout the period. However, any hoped-for increase in volume never materialized.READ MORE

FoxWhen Health Republic Insurance of New Jersey announced recently that it’s $46 million in debt and shutting down, it became the 17th failed Obamacare co-op since the Affordable Care Act launched three years ago. Those failures – just six of the original 23 co-ops remain – have left hundreds of thousands of people scrambling for coverage.READ MORE

MedPage TodayMen with intermediate-risk prostate cancer who are treated with brachytherapy alone achieve similar results, as well as fewer side effects, than patients treated with brachytheraphy combined with external beam therapy (EBT), investigators reported. The results suggest that brachytherapy alone can be used to manage patients with intermediate risk prostate cancer rather than the more conventional technique of combining brachytherapy with EBT, said the study's lead investigator Bradley Prestidge, M.D., of the Bon Secours Cancer Institute at DePaul Medical Center in Norfolk, Virginia.READ MORE

MedPage TodayThe use of a hydrogel rectal spacer to create a safe minimum distance between the rectum and the prostate during dose-escalated image guided intensity modulate prostate RT (IG-IMRT) resulted in significantly less rectal toxicity and urinary incontinence, and better bowel and urinary quality of life (QoL) scores, according to researchers.READ MORE

Prostate Cancer News TodayResearchers have identified and confirmed three separate molecular subtypes of prostate cancer that associate with metastasis-free survival and can predict how patients respond to treatments. The results of the study, the largest of its kind to date, were presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology 2016 Annual Meeting, held Sept. 25-28, in Boston. Titled “Identification and Validation of Intrinsic Subtypes of Prostate Cancer,” the study may help bridge the gap between today’s therapeutic options and future individualized approaches in prostate cancer care.READ MORE

CNBCAbout a dozen new medical tests are coming to market that aim to more accurately diagnose prostate cancer and go well beyond the standard PSA (prostate-specific antigen) blood screenings used today. Several of them may even allow men to forego getting a biopsy that more than 1 million men diagnosed with prostate cancer undergo each year. That's because these new tests will help doctors distinguish between aggressive disease and slow-growing tumors.READ MORE

HealthLeaders MediaNationally, President Obama and other prominent Democrats have revived the idea of the public option in response to insurers such as Aetna Inc. and UnitedHealth Group Inc. pulling back from the individual insurance market and many consumers facing double-digit rate hikes.READ MORE

Kaiser Health NewsThe nation's largest health insurer and the University of California Health system are joining forces to create a new health plan option for employers and expand research into patient data. Under the 10-year partnership, UnitedHealth Group Inc., and the UC system will form an accountable care organization that will be offered to large, self-funded employers statewide. In accountable care organizations, or ACOs, physicians, hospitals and an insurer work together to coordinate care, control spending and share savings.READ MORE